Oh my word, I have, like, nothing to say

So our business switched email servers.

As in, our email comes from a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACE than it did before.  I wondered why I didn’t get any email for a few days, I checked it via web, was redirected to someplace else, and lo and behold, lots of unread email.  LOTS.

So I’m muddling through it.  With very wide eyes, my friends, very wide eyes.  Much muddling, little sleeping.  Wide eyes.  Oh, and blinking.

D’s been gone for a couple of days now; the good news is that we’ve been making our social rounds.  We’ve visited some friends and had lots of playtime and come home tired.  It’s great!

I sure miss my husband when he’s gone.  Sometimes it’s like having two lives; him here and him gone.  But you know what?  I can honestly tell you that I look forward to both.  When he’s home, we all hang out and laugh and play on the floor and tell stories and dig in the mud and help Daddy build and just go, go, go together.  When he’s gone, it’s  a totally different rhythm.  We get up leisurely.  We homeschool.  We go do errands.  We go see friends.  We do storytime at the library.  We watch the Food Network.  We cook together.

And that’s the primary difference.  One life is a marathon; the other a meander.

Now, I used to not like that (as an English major, I hereby declare “used to not” as completely acceptable).  I wanted a “normal” life.  Now I really like it.  It’s the differences in our schedule that make us most grateful of each other and our time together.

Does that make sense?  My mind and my eyes are blurry.  Did I mention we had a huge change in our email system?

WFMW — Tips for a Lovely Loo

I do a *lot* of my praying and thinking in the bathroom.  The gentle sounds of water running, the light through the frosted window — and the fact that I’m alone, gloriously alone!

Anyway, here are some tips I’ve learned for keeping up my little retreat:

1.  That after-shower spray stuff? Yeah, it works great keeping sinks clean too.  Spray the sinks after brushing teeth in the morning.

2.  Use old handtowels instead of bathmats; they dry faster and don’t take up as much room in the laundry.

3.  If your bathroom doesn’t have a window, place 2 or 3 dryer sheets on the floor behind the toilet to help absorb odors without giving off overly flowery scents (obviously, you’ll smell them strongly at first, but the scent will fade within hours).

4.  Kids Clean!  I cannot take credit for this, but it has revolutionized our housekeeping!  To clean tubs, showers, and sinks, generously sprinkle each with salt and baking soda, then sprinkle with vinegar.  Wait a minute or two and let happy little hands use sponges to scrub surfaces clean.  It’s non-toxic and makes a fabulous scrubby sound, and it has turned our Mommy’s helpers into professionals at our house!

5.  Basket o’ books and pens — Yes, I definitely keep reading material in the bathroom.  But I’ve also learned to keep a couple of notebooks or notepads and sharpies there as well.  That way, all the ideas from the quiet moments in the shower aren’t down the drain (I worked real hard for that bad joke:) ).

6.  Keep a spray bottle of vinegar and water solution.  Even when I don’t have time to fully clean the mirrors or the sinks, I can shoot the solution on the dirty spots and let it do the hard work for me. When I come back to fully tend to the mess, I spray a bit more to wet it and then wipe clean (and it dries without streaking).

7.  Dry erase markers are *ideal* for jotting memos — and encouragements! — on mirrors.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but I’m going to blame it on my fatigue   These are just the things that work for me in our bathrooms; pop over to Shannon’s for lots of great ideas for EVERY area of life!